“Executive Coach” Senior Associate
David Grau is an executive and leadership coach in Bethesda, MD, with an in-depth consulting background in organization development and change management. He has over 17 years of coaching and consulting experience in the corporate, government, and non-profit sectors. For 9 years he served on the Senior Leadership Team at the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), one of the Centers of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) responsible for the safety of the nation’s food supply. He has particular abilities in assisting executives in identifying and making maximum and appropriate use of their strengths and identifying their opportunities for increased effectiveness as a leader.
David is a retired US Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Officer, Navy rank Captain. He has had his own coaching consultancy since 2007. He blends a unique background in health care, as a former hospital dental department director and in information technology, as a health information systems analyst designing and developing software that led to improved patient care at Veterans Administration hospitals nationwide. As a former director of training and development at FDA, David worked with senior executives to develop a leadership competency model for current and future Agency leaders.
In his Senior Leadership Team role as senior management consultant, he led a highly successful multi-year initiative to transform CVM into a high performance organization that resulted in the Gallup Corporation designating the Center as a “best practices government organization.
As an executive coach and consultant, David provides expertise to leaders in the following areas:
- Identification and development of leadership competencies for personal and organizational success
- Elimination of derailing behaviors that impede realization of one’s full potential or can negatively impact employee performance
- Creation of a workplace environment where employees can do their very best work
- Conflict resolution (interpersonal or group)
- Group coaching for leaders and managers
- Leaders leading change– Ensuring buy-in, shared purpose, accountability, successful implementation and sustainment of that success over time
- Development of effective executive sponsorship and support of critical projects and initiatives
Certifications
- 360 Degree Multi-Rater Feedback Assessments: Korn Ferry (Lominger) VOICES, OPM Executive Core Qualifications, PROFILOR, and customized 360 degree assessments
- Strengths Deployment Inventory (TotalSDI)
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Inventory (TKI) instrument
- William Bridges Change Management
- Lominger Leadership Architect and Lominger Interview Architect
A representative sample of clients includes Marriott International, General Mills, Dyno Nobel, Inc., Digital Gateway, Inc., Yuma Regional Medical Center, Ecompex, Inc, Greenpeace USA, Mission of Mercy, Department of Justice, US Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services and the Association of American Feed Control Officers.
Education
- Graduate Certificate in Leadership Coaching, Georgetown University
- Graduate Certificate in Organization Development, Georgetown University
- Master of Arts, Education, focusing on Education Technology and Workplace Performance Engineering, San Diego State University
- Doctor of Dental Medicine, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
- Bachelor of Arts, Biology, State University of New York at Buffalo
